A Better Place
by jethro10
Summary: Caitlin Todd is dead. Holly and her friend Matt cannot believe it, the woman who was taking them out for a girls afternoon... dead. But when Abby is sniped and Gibbs meets a face from his past how will they cope? Rated T for death and injury.
1. Chapter 1

**A Better Place…**

Holly Gibbs sat at Kate's desk, bouncing Bert up and down. Her best friend Matt sat at Tony's desk eating a tube of Smarties.

"What are those weird things anyway?" Holly asked.

"Smarties, duh!" Matt said as if it were the most obvious thing ever. "My Grandma Violet got them for me, there's six more at home."

"I prefer American chocolate," Holly defended her country, knowing that Matt's mother was English.

"They have pretty colours," Matt teased and tossed Holly a tube.

"Well, I would but," Holly began but decided to dive in, why should Matt have all the fun?

"So when do you think they'll be back?" Matt asked.

"I thought they were back an hour ago, I guess I just imagined it but it was as if Kate was walking to her seat," Holly said.

NCIS

1 hour earlier…

"Wow, I thought I'd die before…" Kate never finished her sentence. Gibbs had seen many people struck down before their time but as the bullet pulverised her brain he felt a different feeling. She landed with a thump in a pool of her own blood.

"Ari," Gibbs could see the man across the road on another rooftop. He couldn't be sure by appearance but in his heart he knew it.

NCIS

"Look, there they are!" Matt said. Gibbs, Tony and McGee led the precession into the room just as Abby and Ducky arrived.

"Gibbs, you forgot Kate again," Abby said.

"Yes Jethro where is Caitlin?" Ducky added. Holly looked for her.

"She's taking me to see Madagascar on Sunday," Holly popped up.

"And me!" Matt jumped out of Tony's seat as the man sat down.

"Guys, Caitlin Todd was killed in the line of duty today," Gibbs said. Abby began crying while Holly and Matt stared at him in disbelief. "She was shot in the head by Ari Haswari, let's get to work!"

Holly and Matt looked at each other and were all of a sudden crying into each other's arms. Kate was dead.

**Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Will be between five and eight chapters.**

**Review plese.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A Better Place…**

Holly and Matt at in Abby's lab, they were too sad to play a game, too sad to ask Abby to come in and dance.

"I wish she didn't leave," sulked Holly. "And evil Ari, the guy from the story Kate used to tell me, he killed her."

"I know, it's not fair, she was amazing," Matt was looking defeated for the first time ever and this worried Holly in a way that a four year old never should.

NCIS

Ari Haswari looked through his scope at Abby Sciuto at her lab table. Kate had impersonated her but he had never actually met the woman. Suddenly his phone buzzed with a text message.

_Ari, where are you, Abba told me that you may have killed someone. _

Cursed Ziva, she never could leave things alone. He considered the truth but, while Ziva was an incredible woman, she would rat him up to their father instantly.

Ari: _Who did I kill Ziva? You know me._

Ziva: _Abba was told by the Director of Mossad that an NCIS agent by name of Caitlin Todd was shot dead today. Apparently you met in one of your undercover missions._

Ari: _I did know Caitlin, I'm sorry to hear that. She was an incredible woman and a fantastic agent._

Ziva: _Well, you need to call Abba, he wants to talk to you and he's REALLY mad right now._

Ari grumbled, his father was always in a bad mood, well, to him. To Ziva and Tali he was always polite and civil to, when he was around of course.

NCIS

Matt and Holly saw Tony and Abby hugging and ran over to join in.

"Hey Gibblet, Gibblet's friend," Tony found himself smiling for the first time since before his bout of pneumonic plague.

"We only have each other no…" Abby never finished. A shot hurtled through the window and the huddle collapsed to the ground. Tony drew his gun just as Abby patted his bum. In spite of what happened, Holly began to laugh.

"Taken fire boss," Tony groaned. Gibbs looked at them and suddenly dashed over to Matt. The bullet had entered the side of her arm and come out the same way. She was bleeding and in shock.

Gibbs looked at his shocked daughter and her friend who was crying her eyes out. He vowed he'd get that bastard Ari, even if he died trying.

**TBC**

**Hope you enjoyed that chapter. So now Ziva's edging into this and Matt has been hurt, not life threatening of course but they'll be more focused on shock than anything else.**

**I'm going on Holiday on the 19****th**** of June so I'll only be able to finish this and maybe a couple of one shots (if you're lucky!)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A Better Place…**

Gibbs left MTAC that morning with someone that Holly had never seen before. She had been in a sulky mood to disguise her shock the whole morning but when her father came down with another woman she burst into tears.

"Hey shush Holly, it's alright," Abby crooned, holding her in her arms. Gibbs and the woman came over to Tony. The woman was perhaps forty and had stern features, flaming red hair and dressed in a black pinstriped jacket and skirt.

"Jethro, you never told me you had a daughter," whispered Jenny Shepard almost accusingly.

"Was it important to tell you this piece of information Director?" Gibbs retorted coldly.

DiNozzo stared after the couple as they strode off to the elevator. He seemed to be talking to himself and gave the air in front of him a perverted look. Abby and Holly stared at each other, Abby laughed as a woman walked in, she had dark hair and exotic features and was dressed casually.

"Umm… I was just…" Tony stuttered to her.

"Having phone sex?" the woman asked. Holly didn't know what it meant but Abby found it funny. "Ziva David, Mossad." She introduced herself and they were still snickering. Holly turned around and saw Kate stood there, as she had been when they were last together, the morning of her death, yesterday morning.

"Don't worry Holly," Kate told her. "I'll never be gone forever; I'll always be in here." Kate touched Holly's heart and Holly giggled.

"But I don't want you to be dead, I want you to be alive," tears had formed on Holly's face. She reached out hug Kate and the ghost hugged her. Although they weren't really touching, she knew it was true. She knew Kate was dead and while it made her sadder, Kate was in a better place.

That was right, a better place.

**Hope you enjoyed that. Next one shall arrive as quick as possible! Have fun **


	4. Chapter 4

**A Better Place…**

**For those who don't know, Mulan is a Disney Princess Movie from 1998, I used it because I thought it would match Matt's personality.**

Ducky was missing. That was the first thing that they told Matt when she left the hospital. Her driver, Agent Jeeves knew both Agent Gibb and Agent Haycroft well and knew of the friendship between their daughters.

"I hope he's still alive," whimpered Matt, her cast hurt her a lot and she disliked showing weakness.

"Me too," Jeeves said. He knew the old Scotsman, not well but well enough that he could hope he was still alive.

"It'll be okay Matt," Matt rubbed her eyes; Kate seemed to be sat in the seat next to her. She was dressed like Mulan, the heroine from Matt's favourite movie.

"Kate, what are you doing here, and why are you dressed like Mulan?" Matt asked. Kate smiled.

"You know why I'm here," Kate said. "To tell that it's alright, that I'm always with you in your heart and as long as you remember me, I always will be."

NCIS

Ziva David looked out of her car window, searching for answers; she'd left that idiot NCIS agent at the hotel and was now wondering, should she go through with her mission. From what she had picked up, another member from the NCIS family, the medical examiner had been kidnapped by Ari.

"Abba, they say he kidnapped another NCIS agent, the medical examiner," Ziva sighed into her phone. "And he shot a little girl in the arm."

"You see Ziva, he is evil, that is why you must take him out," growled Eli David.

NCIS

Eli David hung up the phone. Was it right assigning his daughter to murder her own brother. Maybe he expected too much of her. But she was Mossad. She should be able to carry out a simple mission.

He watched rain drizzle down his office window, maybe he'd been in Mossad too long. But it was just one question he still couldn't answer.

Where had he gone so wrong?

**Sorry it's so short but the next chapter will be longer.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A Better Place…**

**Enjoy!**

Gibbs arrived back at headquarters in a fit of rage. Ari had been playing him all along. With the fake sniper it had been enough to convince the team and certainly with the new Director.

"I suggest you all go home and get some rest," Jenny told the solemn team. "Special Agent Todd's funeral is in Indiapolis tomorrow. SecNav has given us the use of his private jet to get there."

Gibbs growled, he was not going to Kate's funeral without destroying the bastard who'd killed her. He had a plan, but that plan involved Ziva David, he wasn't sure that he could trust her.

NCIS

Gibbs pulled Ziva aside about an hour later.

"I have a plan to get rid of Ari Haswari but I'm going to need your help," he said softly. Ziva had been told that Gibbs would have a plan and likely turn to her for assistance.

"What is that plan Special Agent Gibbs?" Ziva asked, just as softly.

"Ari will be waiting at my home tonight, it's your job to kill him," Gibbs replied. Ziva nodded in agreement, just as she had been ordered to.

"When and how?" asked Ziva.

"He'll try and kill me, when he does, headshot," replied Gibbs. "You'll need to hide somewhere."

"Yes Gibbs," Ziva replied. "One more thing, may I suggest that we bring Holly as well, not in the basement but if I know Ari, he's less likely to think that it's a trap if Holly is heard in the house."

"Deal," Gibbs said reluctantly. He didn't want to either lose her or expose her to the dead but on the other hand, Ziva would make sure she was safe and if she didn't. It would result in the same treatment as Ari.

NCIS

Gibbs, Holly and Ziva entered the house that evening.

"Yay! Home sweet home," Holly said, running to the couch and turning the TV on. Ziva crept silently after Gibbs, stopping at the door to his basement. She heard her brother's voice. Her heart skipped a beat, reminding herself that she was here to kill him.

How could she do it though? Her own brother, the boy she'd grown up with, but now the man who shoots innocent women and children. She listened to the conversation and she readied her gun. He was doing this as revenge against their father. Killing and wounding innocents just to get back at a man who, yes, wasn't perfect but what father is?

"Sorry to spoil your…" Ziva fired and instantly regretted it as her brother fell to the floor. Holly screamed and dove under the sofa, terrified for her life. Ziva descended the stairs.

"His father is Deputy Director of Mossad?"

"Yes," Ziva replied, tears in her eyes.

"Not David?" Gibbs asked, he realised he had asked Ziva a lot more than he'd thought he had.

"He's my half-brother," Ziva cried.

NCIS

It was a bright and sunny day was Kate's funeral. Her family and friends all attended. Gibbs held his daughter's hand on one side and Matt's on the other. He saw Kate's parents, Ronald and Constance Todd, pay their respects. The team moved down the line. Matt went first.

'"Federal Agent!" Kate yelled shoving Sophie against the wall, saving the crying girl.'

She sniffed and walked away as Holly came forward next.

'"How about I tell you about the time I was kidnapped by the evil Ari?" Kate suggested. Holly leaned in, she loved this story.'

After they had all paid their respects, Holly and Matt bravely wandered up to Kate's parents.

"Hi, I'm Holly, this is Matt," Holly said shyly. "We're really sorry about Kate."

At that point Constance Todd pulled them in for a hug. They walked away as Abby began playing a song. It was catchy so as the adults walked away from the funeral the little girls began dancing to Abby's song.

Holly glanced across the graveyard and saw, just for a moment or two, Kate. She smiled at Holly knowingly and Holly smiled back.

"I love you Kate," she whispered. And she was certain that the trees had whispered back from where Kate had been standing.

"I love you too Holly Ann Gibbs."

**Hope you enjoyed it guys! Going to write another oneshot for NCIS in the same universe called Sketchbook when the kids and Gibbs find Kate's sketchbook.**


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